Archive for August 8th, 2006
Xbox Modders Feel the Strong Arm of Johnny Law
Into modding? Better watch out or the Feds will be all over your ass like a cheap suit. That is, should you take your “hobby” and make it a rent-paying endeavor.
Jason Jones, a Los Angeles video game shop owner, has been put on probation for three years. Better yet, Jason gets to wear one of those stylish ankle bracelets so that the authorities can monitor him 24-7.
He and two other buddies were caught selling chipped Xbox consoles and pirated games by an undercover agent (huh?) from the Entertainment Software Association. Both have been ordered to pay ESA a fine of US $2,648.
Another involved modder, Pei “Patrick” Cai, has yet been apprehended. He’s described as a fugitive by the US attorney’s office. Screw drug dealers and murders, the real bane of society are those damn Xbox modders!
More Here [Eurogamer] Thanks, Chilly!
Real Life Halo Covenant Transport
In Halo, there are large dropships for the alien bad dudes called “Covenant Transport.” Reader John sent us the following pic, writing:
I was shocked to see this Covenant Transport (ala Halo) along the side of a highway in rural Wisconsin. I guess even aliens bent on world domination are feeling the pain of high gas prices, and are unable to use their high tech gas-guzzlers.
I keep expecting a hoard of extra terrestrial foot soldiers to pop out of that truck, flagging down cars for help.
Yet Another Another 1337 Vanity Plate
Is this getting old yet? I didn’t think so, either.
Olskoolninja reports that he snapped this while stuck in traffic on Pensacola Beach, undoubtedly swatting fine mamas away from his sweet ride with a stack of twenties clothes-pinned to a Cuban cigar. Yeah, we know how you roll, Olskool.
Mr. Jetta is apparently not only Roxxor, but also a member of our proud armed forces, seagoing division. This fills me with pride, and I’d like to hear how a life of gaming prepared him for his currently lifestyle. I also hope he’s driving the diesel Jetta, which is just a cool little machine. It has pleasingly industrial blue smoke and makes a noise like this: nurglenurglenurglenurgle.
Keep sending them in, gentlemen. Eventually we can compile the largest gallery of roadborne nerdery this side of the Rio Grande.
MechAssault Dev Teaming Up With LucasArts
Day 1 Studios, developers of MechAssault for the Xbox, is teaming up with LucasArts to develop a new yet-to-be-named next-gen franchise
“LucasArts is determined to deliver outstanding new ideas to next-generation consoles, and our partnership with the great people at Day 1 Studios creates another opportunity for us to bring innovation and creativity to the market,” said Peter Hirschmann, Vice President of Product Development at LucasArts. “The phenomenal technology created by Day 1 directly affects gameplay in extremely innovative ways– and it perfectly complements the engaging story and intriguing characters you’d expect of a LucasArts title.”
“We wanted to work with a publisher who would set the bar sky-high,” said Denny Thorley, President of Day 1 Studios, “It’s a privilege to work with the creative minds behind some of the most successful franchises in entertainment history, and we are inspired by the opportunity to work with LucasArts on their first entirely new property specifically for next-generation consoles.”
This could be interesting, I wonder if it will be another Mech-ish title?
You Keep Using That Word
I do not think it means what you think it means.
I have a soft spot for internet meta-humor. YTMND.com is infinitely fascinating to me, as is Encyclopaedia Dramatica, LJDrama.org, and Netmodelreview.
So when I saw this pop up over on Aeropause I just had to propogate it. Here we see the actual translations for the myriad acronyms you see bandied about in game chats the world over.
Read more [Core77, via Aeropause]
New PS2 Star Trek Game Coming
Hey, why didn’t I hear about this? I love Star Trek. Gamespot noticed that Bethesda sorta snuck out the details of an upcoming Star Trek title for the Playstation 2. Star Trek: Encounters will be an arcade-style space combat game set to hit on Star Trek’s 40th anniversary this September.
The game will lean on all of the shows from the franchise and it will not be a port of Star Trek: Legacy.
Bethesda quietly unveils Encounters [Gamespot]
Today in Joystiq: August 8, 2006
Joystiquery
Readers pick best webcomic (July 30 - August 5, 2006)
Joystiq takes on Hulkster and the Pokémon
Metareview - Dead Rising (Xbox 360)
News
WaPo looks at Mario Bros. with doe eyes
Kameo Power Pack announced
Newsweek on Japan, arcade mecca
Square Enix talks up innovation, hints at new hardware
SEC wags finger at THQ, launches investigation
CliffyB: Gears of War could hit stores before Nov 12
Carmack’s QuakeCon keynote highlights
MS shows off 360 external HD DVD drive
Sony adds five PS2 “Greatest Hits” titles to the dynasty
F.E.A.R. multiplayer now the low low price of zero
Xbox modder becomes a fugitive, one-armed man stays out of it
ESA’s goodbye letter to E3’s little heroes
EA loves to play Big Brother role
AMD to keep ATI brand, may create more integrated chips
A Dead Rising weapons guide
Culture
College football players feel shortchanged by EA
Top 15 original black and white Game Boy titles
What makes a fanboy tick?
Metroid tattoo, plus baggage
Roomba Frogger
Real life Kong: Oh, if only it were true
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Playstation Ads Just Don’t Give Me Enough “Power Motivation”
From the “Sony can’t get a break” feed comes this post over on GamesDaily.biz, which suggests that Playstation advertising just doesn’t make you feel good about yourself.
On the flip side, the Xbox ads they were up against seemed to increase levels of “distrust”. The actual implications of this study are irritatingly obfuscated by the article, but the gist seems clear.
Anderson’s study found that boys who were exposed to Xbox pictures were “higher on power motivation” than those who viewed the PlayStation images. Along with “power motivation,” the Xbox images also seemed to elicit higher self-confidence scores than those in the PlayStation group. Furthermore, images of the consoles themselves also had different effects on the respondents. Interestingly, boys in the Xbox group had higher levels of distrust after seeing the ad, while this phenomenon was not observed in the PlayStation group.
What’s weirdest about this study, I thought, was the sexual dimorphism in the test groups. I can’t be sure, but the article seems to say that the children were separated based on gender, with girls being tested only in the Bratz vs. Barbie branding category, and the boys in the Xbox vs. Playstation.
I despise people who run around spouting nonsense like this, but jesus christ that’s sexist.
More here [GameDaily.biz]
Gamer Wins $100,000 Check
Micah Ernst, 23, of Meadville, Penn., took the Verizon FiOS Grand Tournament, Verizon announced today. The gamer won $100,000, the largest single prize in an online tourney, in the 6,000-person tournament. The finals were played live in Hermosa Beach, Calif. over Verizon’s FiOS Internet service.
“We congratulate Micah on his impressive win,” said Brian Angiolet, director of Marketing for Verizon. “It was exciting to see him and the other finalists compete live against each other, using a 30 Megabit-per-second FiOS Internet connection delivered over our new, all-fiber network. It’s clear that FiOS Internet is breaking the barriers to fun on the Internet and is creating new levels of interaction for everyone who uses it.”
Ernst plans to use the cash to pay off his student loans, buy a big-ass TV and make a trip to New Zealand, while I would have used the $100k to pay someone to build me a mansion out of watermelon flavored Jello.
Oh well, each to his own. Hit the jump for the finalists and their pay-outs.
Name/Hometown Prize
1. Micah Ernst, Meadville, PA $100,000
2. Scott Rogoff, Trumbull, CT Alienware Prize Systems & Monitor
3. Zachariah Kendall, Colville, WA Alienware Prize Systems & Monitor
4. Kenny Wells, Towson, MD ATI Radeon
X1900 XT Series Video Card
5. Brian Kihneman, Austin, TX ATI Radeon
X1900 XT Series Video Card
6. Dominic Anderson, Portland, OR ATI Radeon
X1900 XT Series Video Card
7. Richard Oliver, Virginia Beach, VA Saitek Gamers Keyboard
8. Stefan Hock, Trumbull, CT Saitek Gamers Keyboard
Something Awful’s Tub Adventure
I take it back, what I meant to say when I denied that Sid Meier was the Merchant Ivory of video games, is that Shmorky is the actual Merchant Ivory of video games.
I was going to link the awesome new Flash Tub directly into our hallowed, greeny-pink halls, but I figured it would be more polite to direct the clicks their way.
At right is a screen from Something Awful continuing feature, the Flash Tub, in which Shmorky n’ friends showcase their oddly skillful flash creations. Simply titled “Tub Adventure”, this rollicking point-and-click romp takes you through a challenging empty room, marriage to a fat lady, and into a plesiosaur’s vagina for a five-star dining experience. It was loosely based on a novel that Florian wrote about our first date, which has been described as both “synaesthetic” and “coprophilic”.
This may not be the best Flash Tub to demonstrate this, but my favorite thing about the series was hard to put my finger on until my good friend Sizzlepig pointed it out yesterday: Flash Tub is created with actual animated drawings, as opposed to the simple moving shapes used in most flash cartooning.
That, my little airborne simians, is raw class. Next time someone tells you video games are artless drivel, you sit them down for a nice game of Tub Adventure.
Tub Adventure [Something Awful]
A Dead Rising weapons guide
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Adventure, Video
We know a lot of you are foaming at the mouth to play Dead Rising, so how ’bout a little weapons guide to help nudge you along once you get your hands on it, huh? Check out this video that will walk you through a wide variety of goods found in the game.
Not only does the vid show you where some weapons are, but also some of the hilarious violence they unleash on mindless zombies. Our favorite weapon shown in this walkthrough? The jar of bees, easily. The chainsaw is an easy second, of course.
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Pirates of the Caribbean GBA Cheat Codes
This is the last of the bunch, the cheat codes for the GBA version of Pirates of the Caribbean. I love these ones, they’re so left-right-left-right-a-b-a-ba-old-school.
Game Boy Advance
1. Invulnerable - Right Button, Left Button, Up, Up, LKey, RKey
2. Magic Wind (Always Behind) - Up, Right Button, Down, Left, Left, Right
3. Restore Health - Select Button, R Button, A Button, L Button, Left, Right
4. Exit Map to Island Nav (or go to next island) - Left, A Button, Left, Select Button, Down, Down
5. Unlock Rumors - A Button, L Button, Select Button, A Button, Right, Up
6. All Ship Upgrades - Right, Left, Left, Down, Up, Select Button
7. Best Jack Upgrades - Right, L Button, Down, A Button, Left, Select Button
8. Restore Grog/Food - A Button, Select Button, Left, Down, Right, Up
9. Add 1,000 gold - A Button, L Button, Select Button, R Button, Right, Right
AMD to keep ATI brand, may create more integrated chips
After some initial rumblings that indicated otherwise, AMD has reaffirmed their desire to attach the ATI brand to several of their forthcoming product lines. “The ATi name will live on at AMD as our leading consumer brand, and so will the Radeon brand and other ATi product brands,” says spokesperson Eric DeRitis. “AMD’s executive management knows very well the power and value of branding, and ATi’s branding is some of the most valued in the global technology industry. As such, we plan to keep it. Period.”
The nature of the products to be branded as such have yet to be fully disclosed, but already AMD is hinting at providing more integrated graphics solutions. Indeed, the branding may become especially vital when faced with the widespread (and arguably correct) perception that “integrated graphics” is merely a shorter term for referring to that worthless piece of tech that came with your computer and can barely push two frames per second in the latest Tiger Woods game. According to their marketing manager for Europe, AMD sees integrating graphics acceleration directly into the CPU as the next logical step.
“So, in much the same way as a floating point unit is now integrated into the processor, I would expect to see joint single pieces of silicon for certain specialist markets too.” Richard Baker restrains the idea a bit, though, and says that AMD won’t “integrate some steaming great big quad-core CrossFire engine into a CPU; that would be crazy. But if you’re looking at entry level parts for emerging markets, where a very simple GPU could be integrated, then that could be possible.”
The true fallout of the AMD/ATI deal will likely become most evident once the new product lines show up which, if Baker is to be believed, could happen as early as next year.
Read - AMD stays hand over ATI brand axe
Read - AMD hints at integrated graphics and physics acceleration in CPUs
Previously:
- AMD to buy ATI for $5.4 billion
- Nvidia on ATI: “basically throwing in the towel”
- ATI responds to Nvidia, clears up post-takeover rumors
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In Praise of the Grind
Liz over at Terra Nova loves the grind.
Whether it’s pulling weeds or slaughtering murlocs, she is all about the zen-like trance of the process of gaming, and in light of those who are willing to pay to avoid the actual game in order to obtain the endgame, I think she may have an enviable outlook.
But the point wasn’t really to eradicate every weed…it was to engage in an activity that felt at once mindless and productive, something that gave me bite-sized victories and could be stopped and restarted easily when toddlers demanded my attention. I could talk on the phone while I did this, or chat with neighbors. I could be social, but I was safe from emails on my computer and laundry in my basement.
Now we have a lawn service, so there are no creeping weeds in our lawn. That’s okay, though, because I’ve got World of Warcraft.
I’ve got my main up to 60 already, as do the people I play with, but this little reverie of hers inspires me to not look at bumping up my sad little hunter alt as such a chore. Motivational gameblogging, how about that.
In Praise of the Grind [Terra Nova]
EA loves to play Big Brother role
Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, Online, Business
There’s a post over at the blog Dubious Quality that points out a little something most of you may not know when you sign up to play an Electronic Arts game on Xbox Live: The company is tracking your personal information. What EA exactly wants with this info, is certainly up for debate. But the fact they are going to these extremes is a little frighting for most. Check out what they want:
- If you sign up to play EA games through Microsoft’s Xbox Live Service, Microsoft will provide your Xbox Live user account information to EA.
- Information collected will vary depending upon the activity and may include your name, e-mail address, phone number, mobile number, home address, birth date and credit card information.
- We may collect demographic information such as gender, zip code, information about your computer, hardware, software, platform, media, Internet IP address and connection, information about online activity such as feature usage, game play statistics and scores, user rankings and click paths and other data that you may provide in surveys or online profiles.
Um, you can take our credit card info? Our home address? Now, we’re not one to don the tin foil hat, but put in the wrong hands, this could get a little sketchy. Anyone else have a big problem with this?
[Via Evil Avatar]
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Sony: DRM Holding up PSP Download Service
I recently had a chance to talk with John Koller, the senior marketing manager for the Playstation Portable for a story I was working on for the Rocky Mountain News. The story ran online today. It mostly looks at the Playstation Portable’s identity crisis: Is it a portable gamer or is it a multimedia player. There are plenty of other juicy tidbits packed into the story as well.
Hit the jump for a few of them:
The PSP has a 120-game library and another 100 coming by the end of the year.
The PSP will definitely get an iTunes-like service that will support music and video downloads, but right now Sony is still working on the DRM.
The GPS add-on will be used for both mapping and gameplay.
The camera add-on will include a built-in microphone and be able to take still pictures and video.
Future iterations of the PSP are likely, but Sony is betting on the device having a 10-year lifespan.
Sony believes Microsoft’s Zune will eventually have game play support and that worries the company.
I’m left with the impression that Sony doesn’t play nicely with Sony when it comes to.. well, just about everything, but most certainly when it comes to digital video and music. Hit the full story for all of the context and lovely quotes.
Sony Fights to Define the PSP [Rocky Mountain News]
DS Lite Nests with iBook
Reader Wickerman just dropped us a line from the World Wide Developers Conference 2006.where he snapped a pic of the DS Lite blending in with iBooks and such at the Steve Jobs keynote. It’s like the Apple laptops had babies.
Dead Rising
A long list of mostly ridiculous Achievements.
ESA’s goodbye letter to E3’s little heroes
Regardless of how you feel about E3’s rebirth, no one is going to hurt more than the little-known developers who had their moment in the spotlight, thanks to Kentia Hall. While little exposure was given to Kentia Hall booths (relative to booths elsewhere), some of the strangest and most innovative sects of the games industry thrived here. So how did ESA notify its lesser-known participants?
Game Politics received the following letter via a Kentia Hall exhibitor:“Dear Valued E3Expo Exhibitor,
As you may have read in the enclosed Press Release, the 2007 E3Expo has been officially cancelled. As the industry has evolved and matured over the past 12 years, the needs of the exhibitors and key attendees have also changed. To address this change, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has announced a new event tentatively scheduled for July 2007.
Details of the event have not been finalized at this time, however our vision and goal is to create a more intimate climate for personalized meetings and product demonstrations. The ESA will announce additional details and information in the ensuing weeks and months.
We would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere and profound gratitude for your past support of this event. It has been exciting and rewarding to see the growth and significance of this industry mirrored on the exhibit floor of the E3Expo through the years. We look forward to many more years of industry growth, vitality and opportunity.
Yours sincerely,
Mary Dolaher
Vice President”
Remember: without Kentia Hall, there’d be no Guitar Hero. It was a showcase for the biggest risk-takers, and while it rarely paid off, the enthusiasm therein is enough to warrant their recognition. With the new E3 Media Festival being invite-only, how many of the lesser-known acts will get to RSVP?
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Magical Misery Tour At Lamethrower
Over at the lamentably neglected Lamethrower, Jason McMaster has combed the upcoming games list of EB Games to skewer any and all disposable, improbable, silly or stupid titles slated to be unleashed as festering boils upon the communcal consciousness of gaming.
I particularly sympathize with this commentary on Rush
The Rush series makes its way onto the PSP, with Wi-Fi support and an exclusive PSP stunt arena.
You know, the first time I saw this game title I immediately tried to figure out if I’d play as Geddy Lee or Neil Peart first. I was daydreaming about how sweet it would be to play an ACTUAL game of Big Money, make someone actually Stick It Out, living in the Limelight or just be the bad ass Tom Sawyer. I was wrong, it’s a racing game.
He also has an issue with Every Extend Extra, betraying him as an ignorant clod who doesn’t recognize it as the sequel to a brilliant PC puzzle game/SHMUP. But the remainder of the list mitigates the clod factor to a good extent.
Magical Misery Tour [Lamethrower]
